Thirty years ago I started on my artistic path by enrolling in bookbinding and calligraphy classes. These early endeavors gave me a solid foundation in craftsmanship and design. Over the years as a professional artist I have explored paper marbling, silkscreening, graphic design, paper making, and collage. Although I still enjoy the craftwork, currently my creative focus is on painting. Through the use of color, composition and movement, I strive to paint mood and emotion. I delight in the spontaneous. Art happens.

It is in my nature to seek the unusual and find amusement in the discarded. I am seduced by the forms and surfaces of found objects. They enchant me with their elusive histories and the memories they induce.

In my voice I claim responsibility to communicate my aesthetics, to give my life balance among discarded and displaced materials, to take measure and find order, and in the end, the mysterious beauty of an object may be recycled again and again…

Process Statement:

All of my one of a kind work is constructed from recycled materials and found objects. I use a cold construction method, assembling all my pieces with nuts and bolts, wire, nails, etc.

The ingredients in each piece I make are chosen for their beauty, mystery or whimsical spirit. The patina and aging of these parts is essentially the palette I have to work with. The stories in these old found objects come together to form a new community in each piece of work and a new story is told.

“As co-owner of an international card company, a designer and illustrator for more than 35. I retired from my business (PhotoTidings.com) to pursue my love of art making in 2006. After majoring in art at the University of Oregon, I expanded my skills by studying with numerous professional artists in the Pacific Northwest, Mexico, Italy and France. I became known for my plein-air landscape painting and impressionistic still life work, but I made a sudden departure in style after spending winters in Mexico and becoming enamored with the allegorical nature of Latin American folk art. My work has shown at Maude Kerns Art Center, Kudos Gallery, Jacob’s Gallery, Opus S6ix and Passionflower in Eugene, at Onda Gallery and Guardino Gallery in Portland, and at the Haystack Gallery in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Much of my work comments on the relationship between humans and nature. Inside, we are all the same, sharing identical molecules with every life form on the planet and beyond. We are all intrinsically connected and when one is hurt, we all suffer. Combining plant, bird, and insect imagery with figurative elements in a slightly surrealistic fashion, I explore and illuminate the essence that links us together. Drawing from my imagination and my love of nature, my compositions are both organic and graphic. My background in design as well as my Spanish/Italian heritage definitely influence my style. I love the freedom of making art with mixed media. I create sculptural bas-reliefs and textural painting using paper mache, collage materials and acrylic paint.”

I am fascinated by the creative process and I love to explore every avenue of artistic expression. My greatest passion is drawing followed closely by the use of texture and color. I find our world a humorous little corner of a perfect Universe.

I believe artists are guardians of the human spirit. We are responsible for preserving truth, love and beauty and our work is to defend freedom, build community and spread joy. It is the job of the artist to maintain a connection with people everywhere through written, visual and performing arts.

Whether it is a small poem , a symphony or a drawing, it serves as another piece in the tapestry of human history that is held together with the threads of the human spirit.